NOVEL NEXT Yandere Dating System
Chapter 12
“Alright, let me get this straight….” Aiden rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“So you made a deal with your dad that if you can turn a failing business around within a year and make it a success, you won’t have to agree to his arranged marriage partner he had set up for you?”
“Well, yes.” Angela scratched her cheek with a weird laugh.
“And because you had entirely no other skills but cooking, you chose a small bakery like this. Only there was a major incident that happened here in the past, making people avoid coming. Not to mention this marriage partner of yours has been paying people off so they don’t come in? Is that all?” He asked.
“Ah. Also, i’m actually not that great a baker...hehe…” Her laugh broke off into a sigh that came with slumped shoulders. “I have good days and bad ones. The last time I had a bad day someone got sick. I discovered I’d actually mistaken rat poison for baking powder, so…”
AIden felt his teeth grind together. “Fucking rat poison. Seriously? Jesus hell, woman. That’s not just a bad day, you could’ve killed people. How the ever-loving fuck have you not been shut down by now?”
Aiden couldn’t believe this shit.
Supposedly the woman was the third daughter of some powerful local family and hated her marriage partner. After months of pestering, her father finally agreed to allow her a way out so long as she could prove herself. Hence, the bakery.
As Aiden had already covered.
“Also, what was all that about ‘’I thought i was going to have to sacrifice my body to you” or whatever? Wouldn’t that defeat the whole damn purpose of this if you had?”
Angela frowned. “Yes, but to be honest I’d prefer losing it even to you rather than that scumbag. He looks okay, but his eyes are those of a dead fish. Just having him look at me is gross. More importantly, he’s done so many despicable things just because his family is powerful. I absolutely loathe him. I don’t want to marry such a bastard. Even being tainted by a fatty like you is preferable. Besides, I was thinking long-term.”
“Long-term you’d have become obsessed with me had I been the kind of bad guy who’d have actually taken advantage of you that way.” Aiden observed mildly.
She snorted in indignation, a decidedly unladylike move. “You have a high opinion of your bedroom skills.”
“It’s not an opinion if it’s true.” He replied evenly, shrugging. A lot of women had been that way with him in the past. Now, whether their clinginess had been due to his skill, his looks or his wealth, well he couldn’t be absolutely sure.
But he liked to think it was solely due to the first thing.
“Right.” She laughed, a tad mockingly. “Uh, but yeah. That’s the situation. You um...you won’t quit, right? You gave me your word you’d work for me!”
Aiden sent her a peevish look. “I don’t recall ever saying those exact words. But I did agree to work for you. And I won’t be intimdated by some rich fop. So sure. I’ll work for you.” Granted, this may turn into a pain in the neck.
But if he ran from every problem, who would he be? Not Aiden Maddox, that’s for sure.
“But we will have to come up with a way to actually turn a profit soon. “ Aiden wasn’t his brother. Ty could bake a cookie so good it’d make Betty Crocker hang her head in shame.
Aiden’s cooking wasn’t at the level of a drug. He did, however, have a few ideas. And like he mentioned, he was still pretty good himself.
“How many months you got left?”
“Six. Well, five and a half.”
Aiden sighed. “I’m going to need free reign here then.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that I have no idea how you were marketing yourself before, but you need to get on that fast. Does this place even have a website? A drive-thru? A carry-out service?”
Angela’s eyes turned glossy. “Um…”
“Yeah. See? That. You have no business sense at all. We need posters, online ads. We should host an event, at least. Soon.” AIden looked her up and down. “You said the only thing you’re good at was baking? And you have ‘bad days’...no, you’re not going to cut it as a baker. Stop it.”
She folded her arms and pouted. “What? No! I like baking. I’m good at--”
“I am not going to let anyone who mistakes rat poison for baking powder into a kitchen. EIther you stay out, or I leave now.”
“But--”
“Have a good day.” Aiden quit leaning against the table and started making a beeline for the door.
“Wait! Okay! FIne, have it your way! Ah, if i wasn’t so desperate…” She muttered in extreme discontent. “Being bossed around by my own employee. How hateful.”
“I’ll try and make you less of a hazard later.” Aiden promised after seeing how crestfallen she was. “For now just leave the cooking to me. You’ll do much better as the mascot.” He held his fingers together in the shape of a camera and pointed them at her.
“M-Mascot?”
He nodded. “You’re hot. Sex sells, so we’ll take a few choice pictures.” His head was already spinning with ideas. “We’ll host an event a few days from now. You can stand outside and hand out fliers.” He paused to consider. “I think I know someone who could help with this.” He said, thinking about Naoko. She doesn’t do anything all day anyway and she should be ecstatic to help him.
Maybe he’ll even rope Rumi into helping.
Aiden wasn’t above exploiting people. He thought it was all a drag, but hell. It gave him something to do. This was his job now. He may as well go all-in. Should he just make a career out of this? There are worse things…
Well, he didn’t have plans quite so far ahead. Maybe he’ll just work here a year or two. Should he strive to enter higher education? He wasn’t sure if he wanted that. He’d thought of it over the past few weeks. On one hand, college girls. On the other, college was a pain in his last life and who knew how much more troublesome it would be in one like this.
For now let’s just solve this problem so that he doesn’t have to go job hunting again soon. Everything else can come a step at a time. And he still had to get strong enough to protect himself. In his last life he had to worry about being stabbed or shot. In this one he had to worry about fireballs and energy beams. He really had to see if he could do something about that, yeah?
He thought maybe this “system” could help with that. He’d been looking through it and discovered an item shop. Now, Aiden knew that was probably important and likely had some useful stuff. Sadly, it was locked.
He wasn’t sure how to unlock it, either. He guessed it had something to do with women. There had to be a reason his “favorability” with them was a thing. Perhaps after he increased it with enough women something would happen. It was a pretty flimsy hope, but it’s all he had. He wouldn’t rely on it, though.
He was mainly focused on increasing his strength stat for now. It was slowly but steadily increasing and he really could feel the difference.
If he couldn’t learn or gain any of these strange powers he kept seeing people use in the city, well, he should at least become as physically strong as he could. Now, maybe this situation with Angela would gain him unwanted attention. Something dangerous. He wasn’t scared. All that was is extra motivation.
AIden discussed a few more things with Angela for a while before her nephew walked in.
“Uh, Aunty. Do you have anything baking?” The kid asked with a cold sweat on his brow.
“No. Why?” Angela asked.
“Well, now just might be a good time to get cooking.” The boy gave an awkward laugh.
Upon hearing this Angela tilted her head a bit, her ear catching something. “Okay...and what’s that noise?”
“Yeah...about that…” The woman’s nephew rambled on about posting some picture. Aiden felt he knew exactly what was going on and so pushed past him. The doors separating the kitchen and the front of the shop were thin but kept out the noise previously. Now, after going through them, he could hear a cacophony of sounds.
There, in the middle of a large crowd of men, was Naoko. SItting at a table and sipping from a cup. Looking very, very annoyed.
The surrounding men all tried to hit up a conversation with her. Some simply took pictures. Others offered gifts.
“What’s going on here?!” Angela exclaimed as she came up from behind him.
Aiden’s eyes flashed. “I told you. Sex sells.”
There are simps in every world, it seems, Aiden thought drily.
Well, better for them, eh?
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